Good News or Bad News Which Do You Prefer?
I don’t tune into the evening news. I find it utterly depressing and a complete downer.
I prefer to fill my day with whom I can learn from, be inspired by. Yup, I like to know the facts, but I also want to know how to face the next day with positive energy and be “armed” with a good attitude as my ammunition against the negative that pores forth from news stations; the barrage of negative that can influence every thought and make you feel powerless from moving forward.
Let me ask you a simple question: who has ever died from not enough negative news? But, people have died FROM negative news. Look at all of the people who committed suicide when they heard about the great crash in the 30’s. You can change a life with positive news. You can move people out of darkness if they have something to grasp onto that is a positive reminder, that will keep them inspired and keep them going.
In the movie, Castaway, a man is by himself on an island for about four years after he survives a horrific plane crash. One of the things that inspires him daily, is a shapshot that survives of his fiancee smiling at him. He also makes a friend out of a soccerball washed up after the crash, aptly names him Wilson after the company that manufactured it. He talks to Wilson, he looks for the positive in a new friend with absolutely no affirmation that he will ever get off that island. He eventually gets off the island on a handmade raft and is found by a passing cruiseship. He is catapulted back into society with all of its angst. The one thing that kept him going he reaches for…his old girlfriend. She had married and had children. But, she never gave up on him. She kept his car, ready for when he came back. She never stopped loving him and he never stopped loving her. He tells her she is what kept him going—that simple smile and the love that it conveyed.
This is the kind of news we need to keep in front of us. Not the bad news, but the good. Because that is what will get you out of bed to face each day. Let’s keep inspiring one another with good news because it can feed upon itself. It’s your choice, good or bad.
Survival depends upon the good you can tap into, not the negative. Ask any survivor of concentration camps. Ask the parents of the Sandy Hook massacre. They have banded together and looked for what good can come out of their communal tragedy. They have created a "promise" to help keep children safe through positive and loving change. (Here is one verse:)
This is a Promise
"To be open to all possibilities.
There is no agenda other than to make
our community and our nation a safer, better place".*
That is the kind of inspirational message that I would RATHER listen to.
*This story was brought to me by NPR’s program on January 13, 2013.
Comments(14)